The picture was taken inside the players’ dressing room at the Sydney Cricket Ground after Pakistan defeated a strong Australian Test side. This was Pakistan’s first Test victory against Australia in Australia. With the victory, Pakistan squared the series 1-1 after being one down in the series. Seen in the background is a shirtless Imran Khan who took 12 wickets in the match.

Pakistani sprinter, Abdul Khalique (left), on his way to winning Pakistan’s first international gold medal in athletics. He won this honour in the 1959 Commonwealth Games in the 100 meters dash.

The Pakistan cricket team performed well throughout the 1950s after getting international Test status in 1952. Here are three of that team’s players in 1954: AH Kardar, Fazal Mahmood and Imtiaz Ahmad.

Pakistan and India battle it out at the hockey final of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. Pakistan won the game and the gold medal.

The Pakistan hockey team on its way to beating Spain in the final of the 1971 Hockey World Cup in Barcelona.

Pakistan hockey players get into a tussle with the German team in the hockey finals of the 1972 Munich Olympics.

A 1976 photo of the award ceremony of the Pakistan Open Squash tournament which was won by Qamar Zaman (he beat the time’s World No: 1 Geoff Hunt). This was the beginning of Pakistan’s long dominance of world squash that ended in the 1990s

Pakistan’s Jansher Khan (left) and Jahangir Khan dominated international squash in the 1980s.

The Pakistan cricket team under Imran Khan celebrates yet another victory at Sharjah (1986).

The Pakistan cricket team wins the 1992 Cricket World Cup in Melbourne, Australia.

The openers of Pakistan Cricket Team. BUTT sports was famous for its sporting equipment

Pakistan’s first tennis star and Davis Cup winner, Haroon Rahim (fourth from top left) with American and British Davis Cup players (1970, Karachi). Rahim got into America’s prestigious UCLA and continued representing Pakistan in various international tournaments. However, sometime in 1977 Rahim married an American girl and moved to the US. But within a few years he cut all contact with his family and vanished. His family never heard from him again.

Visiting American President, Dwight Eisenhower, being introduced to the Pakistan cricket team at Karachi’s National Stadium in 1959. Eisenhower arrived with Pakistani head of state, Ayub Khan, to watch the first session of a Pakistan vs. Australia cricket Test match.

Pakistani star batsman, Javed Miandad, smashes the stumps after being given out LBW in a test match against India (1979).

Qaddafi Stadium Lahore in 1978,

The American contingent parade past spectators at the 1980 ‘Karachi Olympics’: Zia’s dictatorship managed to strengthen itself soon after the Soviet forces invaded neighbouring Afghanistan in December 1979. Once the US resolved to oppose the Soviet invasion, it (along with Saudi Arabia), began pumping in an unprecedented amount of financial and military aid into Pakistan.

A photograph of Javed Burki & Hanif Mohammad walking out to bat during the Pakistan Eaglets’ tour of England in 1957.

Young Imran Khan with the Queen.

The Pakistan cricket team wins the 1992 Cricket World Cup in Melbourne, Australia.